A SHA instruction set is a set of extensions to the ARM, RISC-V and x86 instruction set architecture which support hardware acceleration of the Secure Hash Algorithm (SHA) family.

ARM

SHA-1 and SHA-256 instructions appeared as optional features (FEAT_SHA1 and FEAT_SHA256) in the Arm V8.0 architecture introduced in 2011. The instructions are:

  • SHA-1: SHA1C, SHA1H, SHA1M, SHA1P, SHA1SU0, SHA1SU1
  • SHA-256: SHA256H, SHA256H2, SHA256SU0, SHA256SU1

SHA-512 and SHA-3 instructions appeared as optional features (FEAT_SHA512 and FEAT_SHA3) in the Arm V8.2 architecture. The instructions are:

  • SHA-512: SHA512H, SHA512H2, SHA512SU0, SHA512SU1
  • SHA-3: EOR3, RAX1, XAR, BCAX

A scalable vector extension (SVE) version of the SHA-3 instructions appeared as an optional feature (FEAT_SVE_SHA3) in the Arm V9.0 architecture.

RISC-V

SHA2 instructions are part of the Zknh extension part of the RISC-V Cryptography Extensions Volume I: Scalar & Entropy Source Instructions ratified in November 2021.

x86 architecture processors

The original SSE-based extensions added four instructions supporting SHA-1 and three for SHA-256 and were specified in 2013 by Intel. Instructions for SHA-512 were introduced in Arrow Lake and Lunar Lake in 2024. .

  • SHA-1: SHA1RNDS4, SHA1NEXTE, SHA1MSG1, SHA1MSG2
  • SHA-256: SHA256RNDS2, SHA256MSG1, SHA256MSG2

The newer SHA-512 instruction set comprises AVX-based versions of the original SHA instruction set marked with a V prefix and these three new AVX-based instructions for SHA-512:

  • VSHA512RNDS2, VSHA512MSG1, VSHA512MSG2

AMD

All recent AMD processors support the original SHA instruction set:

  • AMD Zen (2017) and later processors.

Intel

The following Intel processors support the original SHA instruction set:

  • Intel Goldmont (2016) and later Atom microarchitecture processors.
  • Intel Cannon Lake (2018/2019), Ice Lake (2019) and later processors for laptops ("mainstream mobile").
  • Intel Rocket Lake (2021) and later processors for desktop computers.

The following Intel processors support the newer SHA-512 instruction set:

External links

  • Chapter 8 of (PDF). Archived from (PDF) on 2013-09-29.